Tag Archives: festival
Hi ho yippee yay, Iceland! Posted by hulda on Jun 18, 2015
…or as we say it in Icelandic, hæ hó jibbi jei! Anyone who’s been in the country for the past week has no doubt both seen this line and heard the song it’s from (link) countless times because yesterday was Iceland’s National Day and Sautjándi Júní is actually far more popular song for the day…
Eurovision – Iceland loves it! Posted by hulda on May 21, 2015
It’s that time of the year again. People are slowly migrating towards the magic box in the living room, beers are cooling and grills are almost hot enough for the first course. There may be flags of each person’s favourite country, if the viewers are young there may well be a drinking game as well…
Buns, explosions and ash. Posted by hulda on Feb 18, 2015
There are three days in February that are far more important than Valentine’s Day, at least if Icelanders are asked: the Bun Day, the Explosion Day and the Ash Day (also known as Ash Wednesday but with some Iceland-specific traditions and nowadays almost no religious meaning). Originally they were the days right before the Lent and…
Elves, fire, explosions: New Year in Iceland Posted by hulda on Dec 30, 2014
New Year is fast approaching. For Icelanders it begins tomorrow, or perhaps right after Christmas, depending on whether you use the official definition or the start of the partying. Officially we’re beginning tomorrow, however, the party is already on. We’ve had fireworks every day, some quite flashy since that’s the way the fireworks sellers here…
Christmas is almost here. Posted by hulda on Dec 19, 2014
Iceland is expecting Christmas completely decked in white. We had even more snow yesterday and cars were stuck throughout the country, so in case you saw people clad in red pushing them out of the banks (link) those were not Jólasveinar but Björgunarsveitinn, the voluntary rescue units. They don’t give you presents but I bet…
Icelandic Christmas calendar Posted by hulda on Dec 11, 2014
Welcome to count the days with the Icelandic blog, dear readers – I’m going to follow the Icelandic tradition of Christmas calendar in which the count-down does not begin on the 1st Dec but the night before the 12th. There will be a new part added to this post every day, so stay tuned! Today it’s… Kertasníkir (= Candle-Stealer)…
Jólin að koma! Posted by hulda on Dec 4, 2014
Christmas is on its way! Without further ado, let’s get into the spirit of Icelandic Christmas 2014 – but first some sad news. The present that was blown away “Góður hluti af efri hluta trésins brotnaði af og stjarnan hékk í miðju trénu.” (= A large part of the lower part of the tree was broken off…